Updated post-Booker data from the USSC

As discussed in this post, I have been expecting a release of updated post-Booker data from the US Sentencing Commission this week, in conjunction with the National Sentencing Policy Institute that the USSC and FJC conducted for judges on Monday and Tuesday in Washington DC (background here).  Though the data does not yet appear on the USSC's website, one of my terrific sources was able to secure a copy of some data that the USSC presented at the sentencing institute.  Thanks to my source (which, if you are wondering, is not Karl Rove), I can provide a pdf with this data for downloading below.

The cumulative data on post-Booker sentences within the guidelines is not all that new (it shows that over 60% of sentences are still within guidelines), but the USSC has also produced new types of data that are quite interesting.  Specifically, the new data runs include some circuit-by-circuit information and data on average sentence lengths, pre- and post-Booker.  Notably, the sentence length data show that the average length of sentences has remained stable after Booker, which seems to contradict AG Gonzales' recent claims that we are seeing a drift to lower sentences. 

When I have more time to chew on all these data, I will have some more commentary on what it all might mean. 

Download postbooker_data_from_sentencing_institute.pdf